


One Call Away.

by Lian_Yu



Category: Arrow (TV 2012)
Genre: Angst, Hopeful Ending, I'm Bad At Tagging, M/M, Season/Series 01
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-30
Updated: 2018-03-30
Packaged: 2019-04-15 03:39:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,834
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14151132
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lian_Yu/pseuds/Lian_Yu
Summary: based on the prompt from otpdisaster on tumblr: "Person A knowing they’re undoubtedly about to die within the next few seconds, likely from the gaping wound they’re bleeding out from. Instead of calling for help, they phone Person B and carry on a casual conversation as if nothing is wrong, making sure to mention how much they love them before their time runs out"





	One Call Away.

Pain pierced through his whole being, his breath became raspy and his head felt heavy. He put a hand to his heart with difficulty, just to check, and felt the wetness as well as the unbearable pain.

It all went so fast.

One minute, Oliver was fighting with Malcolm Merlyn, the next, Malcolm was gone, jumped off the rooftop, and Oliver had an arrow through in his body. It was below his shoulder, close to his heart. Too close.

 

“Oliver!”

 

The blond fell to the ground as Diggle got to him. His friend took a second to assess the situation and then walked behind him, caught his shoulders and moved him backwards just a little. Oliver understood why as he felt a wall hit his back. He felt pain too, so much pain. No matter how much he was used to it, it never hurt less, he just learned how to keep going with it.

But now... Now even putting his hand on the ground to level himself, just a little, felt like the most difficult thing he ever did. Diggle kneeled in front of him, put his fingers on the wound and pulled back, looking at them. Even in the darkness of the night and with his vision getting a little blurry Oliver could see the blood coating Diggle's fingers.

 

“You're gonna be fine okay, I'm- I'm gonna call for help.” said Diggle with a shaky voice.

 

He fumbled in his pocket and picked out his phone. Oliver weekly raised an arm, grunted a little as a spasm of pain ran through his body and covered Diggle's hand with his own. Diggle looked at him confused, pained, scared even, until Oliver took the cellphone between three of his fingers – not daring trying to close his whole hand – and pulled it all back towards himself.

 

“Oliver, what are you doing?” asked Diggle.

 

“You and I both know I'm not-” Oliver grunted, even moving his fingers to type hurted “ not gonna make it. I- I need to call someone just tell my mother and sister I love them.”

 

Diggle carefully put his hand on Oliver's shoulder. “No Oliver, just- just let me call and someone's gonna come to help.”

 

“Please.” simply said Oliver, looking up at Diggle with pleading eyes.

 

One of the earthquake machine had exploded, so many peoples in the Glades were hurt, half-dead laying on the streets waiting for rescue. Oliver couldn't take that away from them, he couldn't mobilize someone to come help him while it was his fault. Oh god, if only he hadn't been so stupid he would've found out there was two devices and-

Oliver took a deep breath, his lungs burned at the gesture. He raised the phone to his ear painfully and listened to the beeping sound. The archer cleared his troath, god his troath felt dry and all he really wanted to do was go to sleep, forget the pain.

 

“ _Who's this?_ ” asked a deep voice on the other hand.

 

“Hey, Slade, it's me.” answered Oliver, he let out a little snort. He was so relieved that Slade had picked up.

 

“ _Oliver? Why are you calling on someone else's phone?_ ” Slade sounded... Amused? If he was happy then that meant things were okay, things were going to be okay.

 

“I broke mine in action, doing some vigilante stuff you know.” tried to joke Oliver. “Well it's been- it's been three weeks since I last saw you I guess I just wanted to hear your voice.” half-said half-mumbled Oliver.

 

“ _You're such a sap_.” teased Slade. Oliver didn't answer, he was too focused on how loving and warm Slade's voice sounded, _home._ He wasn't fooling himself into thinking he could forget about his pain but he could focus on something else, something way better.

 

“What I mean is-”

 

“ _I miss you too._ ” cut Slade, always knowing what he thought. “ _But I'm coming in three days and I'm here to stay, I'll only be leaving for missions._ ”

 

A small smile pulled at Oliver's lips. Another wave of pain coursed through his body and Oliver let out a growl. He closed his eyes and rested his head against the wall behind him. Little by little the pain was being replaced by a feeling of numbness. He had to grip the phone hard to not let it fall.

 

“ _Oliver what's wrong?_ ”

 

“I was thinking we could go on missions together when you get here, that'll be fun, like old times.” Oliver managed to say all that without sounding like too much of a guy on the verge of dying, not that he was in a good position to judge.

 

Diggle was probably judging him, thinking he was a coward not to tell Slade the truth. Then again Diggle didn't know Slade so he probably wasn't caring about that. At least the man was respecting his wishes, if he was even here, everything felt so cold all of the sudden. But Diggle squeezed his shoulder a little, and he felt it.

 

“ _Yeah we'll do that kid, I miss saving your ass._ ” answered Slade. “ _But right now you have to tell me what's wrong, please._ ”

 

Slade... Slade never said please, was Oliver that obvious?

 

“I'm just a little- a little drunk. Everything's fine Slade. I love you, please you have to remember that, please.” Oliver felt the cellphone sliding a little and squeezed his fingers tighter around Diggle's phone. Slade had to know how much he loved him, he should've told him more often, he should've hugged him more often, he should've-

 

“ _I love you too Oliver._ ” And in his last moment, Oliver found comfort in those words. He didn't feel anything in his whole body anymore, however he felt love. The phone finally slid on the ground with a loud tud along with Oliver's arm.

 

“ _But I know something is wrong. I know you, kid, and I taught you how to lie so tell what's wrong, and I'll help.”_

 

“ _Kid?”_

 

“ _Oliver? You're still there?”_

 

No one answered.

 

 *   *   *   *   *

 

Slade walked, making his way in the graveyard. There was someone being put in the ground. A priest, two women and a man surrounded the freshly digged grave, crying. Slade kept moving, his hands shaking a little. It wasn't real, it wasn't real until he saw it. He closed his eyes for a moment and took a deep breath, then he started to walk again. Nothing was real until he saw it.

But then he did. There on the beautiful grey stone, written in black capital letters:

 

Oliver Queen

1985 – 2013.

_A loving son and_

_brother, whose light_

_was dimmed far too soon_

 

It made something twitch in Slade's stomach, he felt sick, they kept the exact same quote than the last time he was buried. The last time- God Oliver deserved so much better than dying for a city who never really saw how good he was. And that was it, that's when it finally sank in. It was real. Oliver was dead, Oliver was really gone.

 

“Hey..” said an hesitant voice behind him.

 

Slade would never admit it but he was startled. He barely moved, just wiped the single tear rolling on his cheek with his sleeve and turned around. He should've seen or heard them coming, but he didn't. There were more important matter than him being too shaken by Oliver's death to realize someone crept up on him, like Oliver being ten fucking feet into the ground.

Slade turned around slowly. A blonde woman stood there, looking uncomfortable, next to her was a guy who stood straight, probably military.

 

“I'm just paying my respect.” said Slade. And he tried to not make it sound like a threath, he really did.

 

“So are we.” answered the blonde. “You know, I think Oliver would've liked it here, being close to everyone, not in his own backyard, I think it was a thoughful gesture from his mother.”

 

Slade felt the rage boiling. “You think he would've liked it here.” he scolded, taking one step forward. Immediatly the military-looking guy moved a little closer to her. “He's ten feet deep so I don't think we can ask him!”

 

Slade breathed hard and loud, trying to calm himself down.

 

“Sorry.” he gritted between his teeths, those were Oliver's friends, probably.

 

“You're Slade, aren't you? The one Oliver called before...” that was the first time the man spoke. Slade turned around without answering, looking back at the grave, he felt drained of all feelings except for anger, sadness and frustration. His eyes stung and were probably red. He hadn't bother checking himself in the mirror since he learned what happened.

 

“You know I normally wouldn't say that because, well killing is bad, but...” the girl started. God he wished they would leave him alone with his pain. “If you want revenge for Oliver, you should go after Malcolm Merlyn, you probably already know he's responsible for the earthquake but he's the one who personally ki- put an arrow into Oliver – god that's not a better way to say it – you should just know he was trained by the gang of assassin, they call him the magician or something so, he's dangerous that's all I'm saying.”

 

Slade spun around fast, eyes widened. “The league of assassin?” They nodded. “He's Al Sa-Her?” Slade didn't even wait for an answer, maybe everything wasn't so lost after all.

 

*   *   *   *   *

 

In the middle of nowhere, where there was only land as far as one could see. Slade spotted the temple. He walked towards it, not even stopping when he felt spies in the shadows. He barely made it to the door when it opened, a man stepped forward accompagnied by two assassins by both of his sides. Soon Slade was surrounded by men and women wearing masks and a hood. Only Ra's Al Ghul wasn't wearing one.

 

“What did you bring here?” asked Ra's Al Ghul, his eyes dropping to the blanket in Slade's arms that was cleary containing a body.

 

“Information.” said Slade, holding the Demon's stare. “I have some about the one you call the magician, Al Sa-Her. I'll tell you everything you need to know if you jut let me bath him in your waters.”

 

Ra's Al-Ghul tilted his head, a smirk pulling at his lips “You know about the pit.”

 

“I've heard” shrugged Slade. Every second spent with Oliver's dead body craddled in his arms was hell, but he would go through hell for this stupid, selfless kid, in a way it was okay.

 

Slade noticed one of the woman on the left side of Ra's Al-Ghul leaning towards the other one and whispering something to her. She had blonde hair that could be seen even from under her hood, the other woman, her, had black hair. The black haired woman listened attentively and then proceeded to repeat whatever was said to the Demon himself. The latter nodded.

 

“If you enter and tell me valuable informations, I might just let you use our sacred waters for your friend.”

 

**Author's Note:**

> I think I'm gonna stop writing multichapters fic altogether and focus on one shot. Like I know how frustrating it is when you wanna know what happens next in a story that was last updated in 2016 BUT THE AUTHOR STILL POSTS OTHER THINGS. I know and I'm sorry! Here's some Sladiver angst to kinda make up for it :)


End file.
